Friday, April 13, 2012

April Platform Challenge: Day 13

For today's challenge, link your blog post from yesterday to your social networks. At a minimum, these social networks should include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, if you frequent message boards related to your blog post or other social networks (like Google+, Pinterest, etc.), then link your blog post there as well.

Be sure to connect the dots for your audience.

I understand many of you may have already completed today's challenge. If so, hooray! Enjoy your easy Friday. If you still want something to do (or want to earn extra credit), share a #FollowFriday (or #ff) Tweet on Twitter of 3-5 Tweeps you find especially engaging. Be sure to include a few words expressing why these Tweeps are worth following.

Is it appropriate to link to my blog post multiple times?
All writers develop their own strategies for linking to their articles and blog posts, but here's my rule. I will usually link to each blog post on every one of my social networks at least once. Since I have a regular profile and a fan page on Facebook, I link to each of those profiles once--and I only link to posts once each on Google+ and LinkedIn. But Twitter is a special case.

The way Twitter works, Tweets usually only have a few minutes of visibility for Tweeps with an active stream. Even Tweeps with at least 100 follows may only have a 30-minute to hour window of opportunity to see your Tweet. So for really popular and timely blog posts, I will Tweet them more often than once on Twitter.

That said, I'm always aware of how I'm linking and don't want to become that annoying spammer that I typically avoid following in my own social networking efforts.

Apply title + link formula. For instance, I might Tweet this post as: April Platform Challenge: Day 13: (link). It's simple and to the point. Plus, it's really effective if you have a great blog post title.

Frame the link with context. Using this post as an example, I might Tweet: Take advantage of social media by linking to your blog posts: (link). Pretty simple, and it's an easy way to link to the same post without making your Twitter feed look loaded with the same content.

Quote from post + link formula. Another tactic is to take a funny or thought-provoking quote from the post and combine that with a link. Example Tweet: "I will usually link to each blog post on every one of my social networks at least once." (link). Again, easy stuff.

If you have any other strategies you employ (or questions), share them in the comments below.

Happy Friday the 13th! Don't break any mirrors or step under any ladders!

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102 comments:

Already done. Automagically. My Wordpress settings for Misk Cooks post links on Twitter and Facebook (and my Facebook page). I will however do a few #FF later today when America wakes up (as in time zone differences).

OK. well this is tricky, because of the aforementioned (on yesterday's post) uncertainty about a call to action. But I do routinely (though not automatically) share blog posts on Twitter & Facebook & sometimes other networks.

I also just have to add that I have a low tolerance, personally, for multiple tweets of the same blog post. Twice is fine. Three times I can occasionally handle. But beyond that, I'm mightily tempted to unfollow. (This is hard, because some of my friends commit this "sin" routinely.)

I should also say that I'm not talking about multiple tweets that aren't concentrated in a single day--for instance, tweeting an archived blog post weeks/months/years later.

On another note: Robert, don't dive in to Pinterest! Stay with those of us who #ResistPinterest because we just can't handle one more social-media platform.

Already done here too. I suppose that is a good thing...and a bad thing. My first response was, oh cool, no challenge. My second response (immediately thereafter) was Oh my God! What will I do come May 1? It was a scary thought. So I guess I will set up a Pinterrest this morning... Having a task everyday is good. Maybe I will rethink that PhD...again!

I link my blog to pinterest. It has its own board, called "my blog", with the pictures I use in each post linked to that entry. It hasn't driven very much traffic, which given my topic, I expect. If I blogged on food or fashion or design, however, it would be a must.

I will do this as part of my A to Z Challenge. I share my blog posts with my networks already, but I too had not thought of strategically posting the same post a couple times on Twitter. Put me down as someone else who is opposed to Pinterest. Social networks are great, but I'm of the opinion that signing up for more than 3, maybe even 2, begins to experience some diminishing returns, especially with a full-time job and competing for time to actually write the content worth sharing on the networks. Just my thoughts.

Julia & others, I link my blog posts to Pinterest. Make sure you have a good graphic at the top of your post. Once you have an account, go to "add a pin". Put the URL in the box and go through the images until you find the one you put at the top of your post. Then "Pin It." I learned how to do this one Saturday afternoon and it really drives traffic to my blog.

It may make a difference that I link to a collaborative board. I already have 3 likes and 6 repins in the last five minutes. http://pinterest.com/jeanniepartin/you-know-you-are-a-teacher-when/

However, count me as one who prefers not to get into Pinterest. Although they've tightened up their copyright policy, I have concerns about the free and easy pinning of images that don't belong to people, not that this directly affects me, but I'm not keen on Pinterest for this reason.

Done. Added my link to my Google+ sit even though I only have 2 followers. Not very many people seem to be buying in to this idea so far? Also #FF one of my favourite Tweeps to follow in the April Challenge. @rhondaparrish

Easy-peasy Friday! I do the linking automatically each time I blog. WordPress has it built in if you opt for their Publicize app. I did just RT my tweet from yesterday. I agree w/your point about a tweet's short shelf life and wondered how best to handle that, because like you, I do not want to be perceived as a spammer.That said:"My latest blogpost, about #caretaking #aging #parents~The Fourth Commandment, Part II~ http://wp.me/p2ajcN-4y ~ #WhatWouldYouDo #MNINB "

I'm still working on the automatic part of the sharing thing. At the moment, I use my share button below the post after it is published. It's kind of a cranky way to do it. I guess I need to work on that some.

Robert, can we get a list of people who are on Google+? I've started a Writing Circle, but it's kind of small. I'm sure there are many more people working the challenge who are on Google+. I'd like to add them to my Circle.

I finished linking to my social media sites just before reading this challenge. Easy Friday for me. I had been linking to Facebook for a while and today was my first day linking to Twitter. Thanks for the kick in the pants this month. I've improved my platform a lot.

Done. I hadn't looked at LinkedIn since joining last weekend - didn't realize I had all this news, etc. to read!

I don't mind repeat tweets when somebody you follow warns you that you may have already seen that post. "For those who missed it, (link)" or when somebody retweets you, and you retweet that as a thank you (with the link).

Not that I need another social network, but I hope we talk about Google+ because I think other genealogists hang out there.

I have my Twitter Tools all set up to send new posts to Twitter. I have all the directions written down to link to FB, & LinkedIn remains a complete mystery to me. I need to spend some serious time over there figuring things out. Can you only find people if you know their email addresses?

I learned about #FF from my Twitter Handbook and will be doing it today!

Done. I did link my blog post to FB, Twitter and LinkedIn yesterday, but I will also take a look & see if I can post the link anywhere else as well.

And I really appreciate the advice about how and how often to link to any given content! I've often wondered what's appropriate, particularly with Twitter, since I hadn't had any experience with it before this Challenge.

Since day 1, I have been posting my website, and blog posts on twitter, multiple places on facebook (including my blog's FB page), G+, LinkedIN, and emailing friends and family. Otherwise, how would people know about my blog? I have gone back and forth on pinterest. But for now, I'm leaving that alone. I also realized that my blog post is for a different audience other than writers. Trying to find that audience has been difficult. Piper Bayard suggested some places.

ROBERT -I was wondering if you could look at my website and suggest some groups to send my post? Www.bendsintheroad.comTTHANKSMonique

So the tweets went out with the blog post yesterday (wordpress auto sends them to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for me). However, I pushed myself a bit further. I did the #FF retweet, and then I posted a 2nd twitter post with my first line of my blog. Maybe I'll get a big more traffic? Thanks for the challenge! Looking forward to tomorrow's!

oh, one more thing, as far as Pinterest is concerned, I joined but I did it for images that inspire my fiction writing. Sort of line an online inspiration board. If you don't need it, don't join. Its a little weird to sit and look for photos to 'pin'.

I linked to my post from yesterday on all the relevant outlets, including Pinterest. I get good results from Pinterest, especially for health and wellness issues.

Since I rarely make #FF tweets, I made a point of it today -- compiling a list of book bloggers that I think some of the people in this challenge will find interesting to follow. I hadn't realized how many "thank you" tweets I would get back -- that's pretty good! I should do it more often.

All Done, I have all three of my social Media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In) So I can post it once and it goes around to all three but it is a nice tip about Twitter, I will try to use that more often. I am also using the call to action on every post.

I linked to my FB page, G+, and Twitter. I stopped linking on my personal FB page because I didn't want to seem like a spammer to my friends. I figured that the friends who want to see the blog updates are the ones who like my FB page. Do people link to both?

I am still not sure if LinkedIn in is something that is worth putting in the time for, so I haven't set up a profile there.

Done. My blog auto-alerts to twitter and facebook when I post an article. I tweet a second time, based on targeted reading times. So this blog tweeted once yesterday around noon, for Friday readers, and once today for weekend readers. Thanks to the participant who mentioned how they post links to blogs on Pinterest. I have links from Pinterest to my blog for certain writing projects, but hadn't thought to create a board for all the blog articles. I'll go back and #ff people later.

If you are on WordPress.com, you can set up your blog entries to automatically get posted to FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Then you only have to post to G+ ... I tried adding that network, but I don't think they have that option added in yet. They may have in the future. So every blog post is shared across my network. For those of you not on WordPress.com, I believe that you can set up posting instructions on Hootsuite to automatically post to various social networks on a schedule. There is a marketing strategy out there that says you should post everything 10 times. I think that is a little excessive, and draw the line at that. If you're posting on a regular basis, you should be able to get "out there" to your followers sufficiently. The better thing to hope for is the share/retweet/liking of your posts by your followers, so that perhaps their followers will share/RT/like as well :)That's all for today!

I started out my blog linking each time to Twitter and FB. A couple of times it hasn't "auto-linked" but most times it does. I'll be glad when I'm switched out of posting thru MobileMe. I need to get things into a permanent state.